One of the most important things my husband and I did as parents is instill in our children a love and appreciation for all types of food. From day one, it has been part and parcel of our consciousness to teach our kids the wonders of different tastes and textures - whether familiar or downright unconventional. We wanted to teach them to appreciate healthy and nutritious foods and also give them the opportunity to be adventurous eaters, even if that means allowing junk food or clean ‘street food’ every once in a while. To us, it was one very important way to broaden our children’s horizons in understanding and appreciating other people and cultures - through their food.

One of the biggest problems many parents face is dealing with their children who are picky eaters. It is a tiring ordeal to have to battle over food and find ways and means to serve healthy and nutritious food that their children will appreciate and enjoy - or even taste! Sadly, many parents fail to realize soon enough that they have a hand in raising their picky children to be like this. Although it would be ideal to teach children to be good eaters from day one, it is not a lost cause to try to make changes no matter what their age.

Here are some of the principles to raising good eaters.
 
1.     It’s just a taste.
Parents need to teach their children that tastes and textures in food are different and they should be appreciated as such. There really is no good or bad taste if one thinks about it. Sweet, bitter, spicy, salty - these are all just qualities of food that make them unique.

Parents should be conscious about labeling food to be good or bad as well. For example, just because something is spicy does not make it bad or inappropriate for children, right? I mean, kids from other countries and cultures are given spicy food from the time they are introduced solids.